The Crow: Salvation (2000) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)
I can't say that I'm really into fantastical comic book movies or sequels, but this one ain't all that bad!

Please don't read too much into what I said. It isn't Dark City or even X-Men, but it does manage to tell a fairly interesting story with a lot of gruesome film noir atmosphere.

This time the dead guy is a young man who was executed on his 21st birthday for the murder fo his girlfriend. There is a really grotesque electrocution scene. Of course, he didn't do it, so he comes back from the dead with his birdie, to solve the crime and to kick the asses of the guys who did do it, the guys who covered it up, and the guys who lied at his trial.

NUDITY REPORT
some of the scenes take place in a Strip club, and includes topless shots of anonymous strippers.
His arch-nemesis is played effectively by Fred Ward as a Police Captain who is so tough that he isn't even afraid of the Crowmeister when he knows that he's dead. In fact, he figures out that he can strip away the Crow's powers if he can shed doubt on his convictions. You see, people come back from the dead because they have a passion for some unfinished business. But if you can convince them that they are not correct, they lose their motivation .... blah, blah.

Ward delivered the two best bits of the film:

  1. He constantly made fun of a dead guy who's such a wuss that he has a silly pet bird.
  2. He reminded The Crow that if he killed him, that he, too, was going to come back from the dead, and the first thing he would do would be to rape and torture Kirsten Dunst.

Anyway, the story pulls a solid noir atmosphere from the music and visuals, and features fairly good performing for a grade-b, except for Kirsten Dunst, who couldn't seem to find any grounding for her character. It milks the usual Crow formula: sadness, revenge, darkness, exaggerated violence, dark humor.

DVD info from Amazon.

  • Haven't seen it. (Watched the VHS). Info says: widescreen, no features

  • The people who like this kind of film feel that it was a solid series entry, much better than the second Crow movie, very similar to the first one in style and tone. Some of them felt it was too similar to the first one. Here's a good review from someone who's obviously more into this than I am.
  • It's a kid's movie. Rated 7.2 at IMDB from people under 18, in the low fours from adults. Virtually nobody over 44 has seen it.
  • It's a guy movie. Few women have seen it (example: 42 ratings from people ages 18-29, 41 men and one woman)

So if you are a young guy who likes the series, you may think it's a pretty good entry.

The Critics Vote

  • no reviews online

The People Vote ...

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C. Average genre pic, no crossover appeal.

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